What is the origin of hyetal?

The English adjective hyetal is very uncommon, used only in meteorology. The Greek noun hyetόs means “rain”; the noun hyetía means “rainy weather”; both nouns derive from the verb hýein “to rain.” In English and other languages (German, for example), verbs of weather and natural phenomena are impersonal (e.g., it is raining, es regnet; it is snowing, es schneit). In Greek, however, such verbs are personal, Zeus or another god being understood as the subject if not explicitly named; thus hýei means to a Greek not “it is raining,” but “Zeus is raining,” and neíphei “Zeus is snowing.” Hyetal entered English in the 19th century.

How is hyetal used?

What grand cause has operated to disturb the ordinary rate of hyetal precipitation ... is a question to be studied by climatologists.
, "The Drought and Smoky Days in Central New-York," New York Times, July 23, 1864

mores

What is the origin of mores?

The Latin noun mōrēs is the plural of mōs “custom, habit, usage, wont.” The Latin noun, whether singular or plural, has a wider range of usage than English mores has. Mōs may be good, bad, or indifferent: in Cicero’s usage the phrase mōs mājōrum “custom of our ancestors” is roughly equivalent to “constitution”; mōs sinister means “perverted custom," literally “left-handed”; and Horace used to walk along the Via Sacra as was his habit (mōs). Mores entered English in the late 19th century.

How is mores used?

... as Lincoln now feared, with the passing of this noble generation, “if the laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and property, are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their affections from the Government is the natural consequence.” To fortify against this, Lincoln essentially proposed that the national mores of America—taught in every classroom, preached in every church, proclaimed in every legislative hall—must revolve around “reverence” to the laws ...
David Bahr, "Abraham Lincoln's Political Menagerie," Forbes, June 29, 2017

... the artist has always considered himself beyond the mores of the community in which he lived.
Philip Roth, The Ghost Writer, 1979

tutti

What is the origin of tutti?

The Italian word tutti means “all,” i.e., all the instruments or voices of an orchestra together. Tutti is the masculine plural of tutto “all,” from Vulgar Latin tottus (unattested), from Latin tōtus. Tutti entered English in the 18th century.

How is tutti used?

He used to say that music could be either about almost nothing, one tiny strand of sound plucked like a silver hair from the head of the Muse, or about everything there was, all of it, tutti tutti, life, marriage, otherworlds, earthquakes, uncertainties, warnings, rebukes, journeys, dreams, love, the whole ball of wax, the full nine yards, the whole catastrophe.
Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, 1999

You will hear the very obvious difference in volume between the tutti notes and the immediately following music, which is still forte but is played by fewer instruments.
Robert Nelson, Carl J. Christensen, Foundations of Music, 2006

Rasputin

What is the origin of Rasputin?

Grigori Efimovich Rasputin (c1871-1916) was a Russian peasant and self-proclaimed mystic and holy man (he had no official position in the Russian Orthodox Church). By 1904 Rasputin was popular among the high society of St. Petersburg, and in 1906 he became the healer of Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov, heir to the Russian throne and the hemophiliac son of Czar Nicholas II and his wife, Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna (a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and a carrier of hemophilia). In December 1916 Rasputin was murdered by Russian noblemen because of his influence over Czar Nicholas and the czarina.

How is Rasputin used?

... the dynamics of the situation do not permit him to be a Rasputin, whispering in Nixon's ear.
David Nevin, "Autocrat in the Action Arena," Life, September 5, 1969

Others have described Isaacs as "a Rasputin or Svengali-like character in Kerner's life who exploited his undue influence over the governor and led him astray."
Cynthia Grant Bowman, Dawn Clark Netsch: A Political Life, 2010

fantasticate

What is the origin of fantasticate?

Fantasticate was first recorded in 1590-1600.

How is fantasticate used?

Parallel universes are another trope borrowed from the repertory of science fiction. They are a marvelous convenience for authors who want to fantasticate at a high rpm without having to offer a rational explanation for the wonders they evoke.
Thomas M. Disch, The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of, 1998

She also fantasticates about food, and her Catholicism surfaces in her lingering on the cannibalism at the heart of the eucharist.
Marina Warner, "From high society to surrealism: in praise of Leonora Carrington -- 100 years on," The Guardian, April 6, 2017

epigrammatic

What is the origin of epigrammatic?

In Greek epígramma means “inscription, commemorative or memorial inscription, short poem, written estimate of or demand for damages.” Probably the most famous epigram is that attributed to Simonides of Ceos (c566 b.c.–c468 b.c.) for the Spartans who fell at Thermoplylae (480 b.c.): “Stranger, report to the Spartans that we lie here in obedience to their orders,” which is spartan in its terseness. Epigrammatic entered English in the early 18th century.

How is epigrammatic used?

... the dialogue is sanded and sharpened to an epigrammatic elegance ...
Richard Brody, "'Phantom Thread': Paul Thomas Anderson's Furious Fusion of Art and Love," The New Yorker, December 27, 2017

His is the sort of epigrammatic utterance to which there can be no rejoinder, the clean hit and quick-killing witticism: once over lightly and leave.
Nicholas Delbanco, The Lost Suitcase, 2000